I am founder of 7wire Ventures, an investment firm that creates new businesses and invests in early and growth stage companies. I was previously the chief executive of Chicago-based Allscripts, the leading provider of electronic health records and other technologies. A serial entrepreneur who previously led two other publicly-traded companies, I graduated from Bucknell University and worked in Washington before accepting a fellowship to study social anthropology at Oxford University. In addition to my work at Allscripts, I founded a fast-growing solar energy company and holds investments in a number of entrepreneurial ventures. A strong proponent of “giving back,” I serve on the International Board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). The foundation contributes to both educational and inner-city diversity programs as well as many other charities.

That Controversial Cadillac Ad Presents A Surprising Lesson For Bosses

There’s been a lot of media bickering about the new Cadillac commercial that debuted during the Winter Olympics. And while the debate has been predictably loud and polarized, it’s actually worth thinking about if you’re a boss, a business owner or in any kind of leadership role.

If you still haven’t seen it, or heard cable-news folks shouting about it, the ad is basically a 30-second monologue on the virtues of American ingenuity and effort, delivered with playful intensity by actor Neil McDonough. Here it is:

Like a lot of things nowadays, the spot got instantly, almost comically politicized. Pundits on the left assailed it as a symbol of American greed; The Huffington Post’s Carolyn Gregoire wrote that the ad glorifies “blind mania for working yourself into the ground.” The right rose to Cadillac’s defense; on Fox News, self-proclaimed “capitalist pig” Jonathan Hoenig hailed the ad as a “tremendous” celebration of “Americanism” and the pursuit of profit through hard work.

I think both sides are looking at it the wrong way. They both seem to assume that work is a necessary evil, a miserable sacrifice we all make in the name of paying the bills, getting ahead, and accumulating possessions.

In fact the happiest, most successful business people I know all work very hard — but none of them do it for the money. They don’t see work as a sacrifice, and they don’t keep toiling away in spite of how awful it is. The people who work hardest, at every level, are in my experience doing something they are passionate about, something that inspires them. They’re doing something they love, in many cases because they believe it can make an important difference. And when you love what you do, why shouldn’t you do it as much as you can?

And I’m not just talking about tech entrepreneurs building startups in Silicon Valley. Think about teachers, farmers, soldiers, clergy, volunteers, physicians and nurses—the list goes on. The professionals who are best at those jobs work very long hours, and not because they expect to get rich.

Loving what you do doesn’t mean work is always fun. But it probably means you believe deeply in what you’re doing. When I was 20, I spent the better part of a year living with an Amish community outside of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Amish couldn’t be less materialistic; they consider greed a fundamental moral failing. And yet I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as the Amish. I’m talking dawn-to-dusk hard labor. They do it without complaint because each person knows that his or her work — growing grain, raising livestock, providing goods, sewing clothes — is vital to the community. And it’s all part of a social process they enjoy. They are in no rush to finish and they have a lot of fun along the way.

My point is not that we should all live like the Amish. I like cars (I drive a Chevy Volt, but I would love a Tesla). My point is that we need to stop associating hard work with baser instincts like greed and materialism.

It’s an especially important point for business leaders: if you want people to give you their very best, in effort, ideas, creativity and everything, you must make sure they come to work every day knowing why their job matters, and believing that it’s important.

I’m not talking about your management team. They’re the easiest to motivate and the likeliest to be working for you because they’ve chosen to, because they buy into what you’re doing.

I’m talking about every single person in your organization, from the CFO to the admin who answers the phone and orders the office supplies (and, by the way, is closest to your customers). How do you get somebody to love ordering new toner cartridges? By making sure they know that keeping the printer working is important to accomplishing your greater business goal, whatever that may be.

Every company has its vacation policies. Two weeks for new employees, four for those who’ve been around five years, and so on. That’s necessary of course, but I’d argue that, if you’re employees “work” 50 weeks a year with only two weeks off to enjoy themselves, you’re offering them a pretty terrible experience.

You should stop worrying about how much time off you’re giving them and stop trying to make sure they’re striking some artificial “work-life balance.” Instead, you should do everything in your power to make those 50 weeks as fulfilling as you possibly can. If you do that, vacation won’t be an escape for them. It will be a chance to recharge, to let their creativity flow and get new ideas about problems they’ve been trying to solve. They’ll be as excited about coming back to work as they were about taking time off.

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